Mysterious lights captured on video near Little Red likely a drone: experts

A Prince Albert family was left puzzled by a bizarre experience with a set of lights spotted in the sky just outside the city on Saturday night.

Maria Gardiner and her family were driving home from Fort a la Corne when she spotted a red light hovering in the sky near the airport. They pulled off the road in Little Red River Park to get a better look.

“As we were coming closer the light turned green and it was a solid green and I said ‘that can’t be a plane,’” she told paNOW. “My son kept saying ‘maybe it’s a drone,’ and I said ‘I don’t know if it’s a drone because it’s too big.’”

She even used binoculars to see the object more clearly.

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“It was going round and round it had four green lights in the back and three in the front and the middle one was flashing red,” she said.

In total, Gardiner estimates the family spent 10 minutes parked at Little Red watching the lights, before they began to drift west.

“My common-law said ‘let’s follow it,’ so we shut off all our phones and took off and then it just disappeared into thin air, it was just gone,” she said. “I don’t know what it was, it was unexplainable.”

A UFO expert, however, believes the object was likely a drone.

“Having looked at the video, I’d have to agree with what was voiced by one of the family: that it was probably a drone,” Rutkowski, a science writer and ufologist told paNOW from Winnipeg. “The way the colour transitioned from green to red seems similar to some store-bought drones.”

Lending more credibility to the theory the lights were an unmanned aerial vehicle, Airport Manager Cory Nygaard told paNOW a family member alerted him to a potential drone flying near the airport on Saturday night. He called the flight traffic control tower and confirmed staff were aware of the craft and the proper permit had been issued.

“There was a permit for a drone in the general vicinity,” Nygaard said.

The Prince Albert Airport has no authority over drones, but information for drone pilots is listed on the airport’s website. Pilots must be licensed by Transport Canada and seek special permission from NAV Canada to fly in controlled airspace, which includes most of Prince Albert because of its proximity to the airport.

Even with proper permits, Nygaard cautioned against operating the crafts near the airport.

“It’s dangerous to the safety of the public who are flying,” he said.

Unsafe drone use can be reported to Transport Canada. Emergencies and property-related drone offences should be reported to the police.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom